Famine in Madeira in 1846 and 1847

A large part of the Madeiran population died in the horrors of famine during the last three months of 1846 and the first months of 1847. The cause was the failure of the potato (Madeiran semilha), then the staple food of the poor, which was destroyed by a disease previously quite unknown on the island. Had the rural population possessed the means to buy other provisions, and had these been plentiful on the island, the crisis that afflicted it would have been less terrible. Unfortunately, however, the potato disease was compounded by a marked fall in the price of wine. This brought destitution to the farmers and smallholders, whose cash income came almost exclusively from selling their must to the merchants.

Fortunately, since the beginning of October 1846 Madeira had been governed by Councillor (conselheiro, honorary title of the royal council) José Silvestre Ribeiro, a man who attended to everything with truly remarkable zeal and dedication. It was thanks to the sound measures he adopted at once that the violence of the calamity could be lessened and its duration shortened.

On 15 October 1846 a meeting of the principal authorities and officials of the district, called by the governor, was held in the offices of the civil government building (Governo Civil). It was resolved that the three key-holders (claviculário, one of the officials each holding a key to the strongbox) of the central treasury should advance up to 1 500$000 réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis) for clearing debris from the watercourses. Shortly afterwards the Governor persuaded the Central Relief Committee (Comissão Central de Auxílios), set up at the time of the flash flood (aluvião) of 1842, to apply to the same works the sum of 282,000 réis that it still held in its coffers. This made it possible to give work, and therefore a cash income, to a great many men struggling with destitution.

As there was a severe shortage of foodstuffs on the market, Councillor José Silvestre Ribeiro had the Municipal Council (Câmara Municipal) of the city authorised to draw from the central treasury the sum needed to buy a large quantity of maize held in store by an English merchant and to distribute it to the people at cost price. At the same time he induced several merchants and some landowners to contribute, each according to his means, to a special fund for buying provisions in countries that could supply them on favourable terms. On that occasion, again at the Governor’s instigation, a committee of 7 members, Portuguese and foreign, was formed in Funchal under the presidency of the Bishop to solicit donations for the destitute. It was agreed that this committee should set up branch committees in every parish to obtain relief in money and in kind and distribute it among the poor.

By 25 May 1847 the city’s merchants and some landowners had raised a fund of 32,500,000 réis for the purchase of food. By that date the committee in charge of the fund had brought in the following provisions: in March, 2 moios of beans; in April, 100 moios of maize, 100 of wheat, 1250 barrels of flour and 194 sacks of rice; and in May, 557.5 quintais of maize. Other provisions also reached the city, though not ordered by this committee.

When this committee wound up the sale of the provisions it had acquired, it not only reimbursed the merchants for the sums they had contributed but even realised a surplus of 1,755.55 escudos, which the Funchal Municipal Council (Câmara Municipal do Funchal) applied in 1848 to the building of the Ponte do Ribeiro Seco (‘dry brook’).

At the end of February 1847, when food shortages were at their worst, there were even fears of serious unrest, for popular anger ran high against the merchants, who were branded monopolists and enemies of the poor. Fortunately, however, public order was never actually disturbed. A considerable part in this was played by the fact that some of those merchants, fearful of what might befall them, decided to put the maize and wheat they held in store on sale on terms favourable to the public.

On some days in February a large part of the population lived on sugar cane, and steps were taken to stop the mills from crushing it for spirit (aguardente, distilled from sugar cane or wine) and molasses.

The treasurers of the parish branch committees often found it difficult to put the money they received to use, because they could find no foodstuffs on sale, or came across only small quantities. It became necessary to distribute rations of meat and fresh fish to those for whom the relief was intended, so that they would not die of hunger.

The extraordinary measures taken by the Governor in drawing money from the central treasury to bring prompt relief to the ills afflicting the people of the archipelago won the Government’s approval. However, when the Governor requested a credit of 30 contos (one million réis) for public works in the district, he was allowed to spend only 2,500,000 réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis), in addition to the sum already authorised for those works under the credit of the financial year.

To benefit the people of the archipelago, the Government reduced the import duty on foreign-grown wheat to 25 réis, and exempted all other cereals, whether as grain or as flour, from payment of the third required for municipal levies by the law of 2 August 1839. These provisions, however, remained in force only until harvest time in the archipelago.

On 1 March the Governor had a further 3 contos de réis released from the public treasury for the purchase of food for the truly needy in the various parishes who were unable to work or had no work. On the night of 17 April, at the same Governor’s request, a charity performance was given in the city’s small theatre: the drama by Ducange and Dinaux Trinta anos ou a vida de um jogador (‘Thirty Years, or the Life of a Gambler’), which had been rehearsed by Dr Luís da Costa Pereira. On the night of 26 April the same drama was staged again, and on both occasions all the actors gladly agreed to play the parts assigned to them without payment, and even at their own expense.

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During the famine crisis,’ says Dr Azevedo in the notes to ‘Longing for the Homeland’ (Saudades da Terra), ‘a committee made up of Messrs George Stoddart, John Howard March, George Hasch and Richard Davies raised subscriptions abroad, which produced the following: from Hamburg, 556,520 réis in cash; from Russia, 873,600 réis in cash; from the United States of America, 19,660,780 réis in provisions and 3,215,190 réis in cash; from England and Ireland, 48,000 réis in provisions and 10,073,080 réis in cash. In the British chantry on this island, after a sermon on charity by the Revd T. K. Brown, 464,000 réis in cash were then offered. The committee also asked the English, Americans and Germans on this island for a subscription, which, including the individual gifts of the four members named, produced 2,536,600 réis in cash. The total of these donations, including 54,554 réis in premium on the sovereigns imported, came to 37,482,324 réis.

Thanks to the outstanding services of Councillor José Silvestre Ribeiro, and to the loyal assistance given to this illustrious official by the municipal councils, the administrators of the municipality (concelho), the relief committees, various foreigners and even some merchants, the situation of the Madeiran people had already improved considerably by the end of April 1847. Everything returned to normal only later, however, when the subsistence of the population was fully secured by the spread of sweet potato cultivation, the disappearance of the potato disease and the arrival of large quantities of cereals from abroad and from some Portuguese colonies.

The first three months of 1847 were a season of misery and desolation for the Madeirans. Nevertheless, there is no record that anyone managed to amass great wealth at the expense of the people’s misfortunes, as has happened in more recent times, nor that any authority or official failed to do his duty honestly. The right of property was respected, and if some goods rose in price, this was not for want of provident measures taken by the authorities.

On 1 March 1847 the Governor told the Administrators of the Municipality that if the inhabitants of the country parishes dared to come to the city with the criminal intention of forcing the merchants to put on sale maize they supposed was still in the warehouses, ‘he was prepared to punish them very severely, and in such a way that they would remember the lesson for many years’. Yet while he sought to enforce respect for the right of property, he also issued a public notice (edital) inviting all cereal merchants who had any maize stored to declare it immediately before the Council, so that it could be ground into flour and put on sale on the terms previously laid down.

Councillor José Silvestre Ribeiro showed no indulgence towards anyone where the people’s interests were concerned. It was owing to this that complete calm always prevailed, and that everyone endured without any protest worth mentioning the misfortunes that afflicted Madeira in 1846 and 1847.

The Collecção de documentos relativos á crise da fome, published by Servulo Drumond de Meneses in 1848, records all the measures taken by José Silvestre Ribeiro to relieve the people’s sufferings for as long as the crisis lasted. Scholars should turn to that work if they wish to learn in more detail of the benefits the Madeirans owed to that official during the calamitous period the island went through.